Last week Deb and I attended the annual Needlework Guild of Minnesota retreat in Buffalo, MN. It's a week we always look forward to anxiously and bemoan when it's over. This year we went a day earlier so we could have time to settle in and make more than a quick trip to the local yarn shop. We again had the Garden Room as our independent study room. We weren't happy about that because we had a bad experience there our first year. But this year it was just fine; I can actually say I enjoyed it. The light during the day is wonderful because of all the skylights and glass wall overlooking the lake, but in the evening it's not so ideal. Still, we both had our Ott lights and that helped. We staked our claim to a table and remained there the entire week. I was busy working on knitting a pair of socks for Aimee as part of Ravelympics and Deb was working on one of the most gorgeous Quaker samplers I've ever seen.
I took 3 classes from Lauren Sauer (Forget-Me-Not In Stitches). This is one of my favorites. It's called Key to My Heart. The heart is stitched in wonderful silks. When it is opened, it contains an antique key. On the inside, the heart design is simply back stitched; on the back the heart design has some color; and the front is in full color. It's very easy and so very pretty.
One of the things the Guild did for a fundraiser this year is have a silent auction for 18 handmade aprons the Guild used in the past for something or other (I can't remember the original purpose of them). When the Guild moved about a year ago, they were going through all they had accumulated and ran across the box of aprons. They were going to simply throw them out until someone thought of auctioning them off. The aprons were displayed on a clothes line stretched over the stairs going from the entrance of the retreat center to the lower level. Some of those aprons went for BIG bucks! One woman also took all the aprons and photographed them individually and made them into an extremely beautiful calendar, which they also sold as a fundraiser. Of course, I had to get one!
During Show and Tell at the annual meeting, 9 Guild members brought the neighborhood round robin they had worked on for the past 2 years. They were SO beautiful! This was my favorite, done by the "infamous" Kathe Lyndsley...stitcher extraordinare.
One of the things that I love most about this retreat, besides the opportunity to do nothing but stitch, eat and sleep, is the peacefulness of the retreat itself. We saw some of the most spectacular sunsets this year. I'm already anxious for next August to roll around!
I took 3 classes from Lauren Sauer (Forget-Me-Not In Stitches). This is one of my favorites. It's called Key to My Heart. The heart is stitched in wonderful silks. When it is opened, it contains an antique key. On the inside, the heart design is simply back stitched; on the back the heart design has some color; and the front is in full color. It's very easy and so very pretty.
One of the things the Guild did for a fundraiser this year is have a silent auction for 18 handmade aprons the Guild used in the past for something or other (I can't remember the original purpose of them). When the Guild moved about a year ago, they were going through all they had accumulated and ran across the box of aprons. They were going to simply throw them out until someone thought of auctioning them off. The aprons were displayed on a clothes line stretched over the stairs going from the entrance of the retreat center to the lower level. Some of those aprons went for BIG bucks! One woman also took all the aprons and photographed them individually and made them into an extremely beautiful calendar, which they also sold as a fundraiser. Of course, I had to get one!
During Show and Tell at the annual meeting, 9 Guild members brought the neighborhood round robin they had worked on for the past 2 years. They were SO beautiful! This was my favorite, done by the "infamous" Kathe Lyndsley...stitcher extraordinare.
One of the things that I love most about this retreat, besides the opportunity to do nothing but stitch, eat and sleep, is the peacefulness of the retreat itself. We saw some of the most spectacular sunsets this year. I'm already anxious for next August to roll around!
